The reputation of Ceruti, active in northern Italy in the eighteenth century, is based on his paintings of impoverished people from the margins of society, whom he depicts not as comedic, dehumanized figures or as types, but as individuals rendered with great empathy. His paintings of beggars are landmarks in the history of European art, remarkable for their seemingly unvarnished directness, and for the great human dignity the artist conferred on the victims of a hierarchical society.
